Internet searching applications allow a user to search for almost any particular subject. Computer applications, both on the desktop, and within the browser (i.e., on the Internet) allow the user to manipulate search results and incorporate them into an application. Certain searching tools also exist to allow a user to search for almost anything and to obtain the answers in fractions of a second.
Electronic forms (“forms”) may be utilized to gather information from users of desktop applications, and applications on the Internet. Forms can be custom designed to request or accept several different kinds of data input from the user. In addition, forms are normally tailored in various different configurations, according to pre-designed form structures or based on the requirements of the user of the form.
In one example of a conventional method to generate user-defined forms, certain components may be dragged and dropped, to create a form and a corresponding schema. Such a form may be utilized to gather input from a user of an application, and may be created graphically. For example, the form may be created by utilizing a form generation tool where the form designer may drag and drop certain data elements during the form creation process.
These applications that assist the user with creating forms may place several different types of input components on the form itself by offering dragging and dropping tools to place components on a visual canvas. These form creation applications may shield the user from the complex details included in the process of creating a schema, and may also provide the necessary tools to connect the form application to the back-end application stored away from the user.
While a user of a form design application has the ability to create forms without the need to understand programming language details, the user may still be limited to the pre-defined components in the application itself. The components of a form generation application provide only a fixed set of components (i.e., dropdown list component) that a user may select and utilize within the form. In addition, all of the elements in the dropdown list must be filled by data input from the user. The structure of the dropdown list may be pre-configured in the component list, however, the dropdown list may only be a generic and empty dropdown list that requires a complete set of input data.